Intended for display rather than practical use, this table top
was
made in 1886–1887 for Colonel Robert Murdoch Smith, an officer in the
Royal Engineers who was seconded at the time to work on the
development of the Persian telegraph, became its Director, and was
later knighted as Major General Sir Robert Murdoch Smith. He
collected Persian art for the South Kensington Museum and became
Director of the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art. Interested in
the craftsmanship of the tileworker ‘Ali Mohammad Esfahani, he
commissioned this table top as a showpiece of the potter’s
remarkable skills and painterly use of perspective, shading and
graded colours.

The central disc shows Rostam’s defeat of the Turanian
Ashkabus
(see No. 37). The ring of birds and flowers, typical of the Qajar
period, contains a cartouche with the date and the names of partron
and artist. The tiles forming the outer circle contain scenes from
the Shahnameh, historical and literary figures.
They are
listed clockwise, starting from the scene on the bottom right:

90a. Shah ‘Abbas I (1587–1629) is shown enthroned, with
Hoseyn-e
Kord (‘Hoseyn the Kurd’), a hero of popular contemporary
storytelling, whose nisbeh
(appellation) is Shabestari. The number ‘2’ in Western mode is
inscribed on a column base.

90b. Shah ‘Abbas I (1587–1629) enthroned and sharing a cup
with
Khorram-e Chini, the follower of Malek Shah of Chin, a character in
the romance of Hoseyn-e Kord (see No. 90a).

90c. The Shahnameh hero Gudarz, shown
leaning against a
bolster, and his son Giv, the father of Bizhan, were two of the most
loyal paladins of Iran. They followed Key Khosrow when he resigned
his throne and went into the mountains. Gudarz, by the order of
Khosrow, left the mountains, but Giv remained and died in the snow
(see
No. 53).

90d. Labelled ‘Battle of Rostam with Sohrab’, this Shahnameh
scene shows Rostam tearing his garments in despair at having
killed his son Sohrab (see
No. 82).
The number 8 is written in
Persian and Western mode below the mace.

90e. Hoseyn-e Kord (‘Hoseyn the Kurd’), who appears with Shah
‘Abbas on another tile (No. 90a), reclines attended by a
young cupbearer named Yusof II, with whom Hoseyn amused himself after
one of his exploits. Yusof is the epitome of the beautiful and
virtuous servant. The primary Yusof, the biblical Joseph, appears in
the Qur’an, but was better known in Iran from Jami’s narrative
poem, Yusof
o Zoleykha.
The number 3 in Persian and Western mode is incorporated into the
carpet.

90f. Hushang, the second king in the Shahnameh,
is depicted
enthroned, with his son and successor, Tahmuras, before him.

90g. The Turanian Afrasiyab, principal enemy of Iran in the
Shahnameh, is shown enthroned with one of his
warriors,
Ashkabus, before him. The latter’s name is spelled differently from
the version in the central tile. The number 7 is inscribed in Persian
and Western mode on the column.

90h. Qahraman, an Iranian hero, is depicted enthroned, with
Qahtaran, another Shahnameh hero, before him. The
number 4 in
Persian and Western mode is incorporated into the carpet below the
throne.